


Congratulations On Your Bit Of Success

by legendaryjars



Category: One Piece, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Gen, also for nami and vivi to get married. but thats a whole other thing, i have no idea where im going i just want luffy to punch kyle ron in the nose is that to much to ask, that i will try to fit in somehow
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:47:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25294918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/legendaryjars/pseuds/legendaryjars
Summary: The infamous Strawhat pirate crew gets roped into a war almost completely by accident by almost running into a defecting stormtrooper as he's breaking out the best pilot in the Resistance. But let's be real, they probably would have gotten involved anyway.
Relationships: Franky/Nico Robin, Nami/Nefertari Vivi, Poe Dameron/Finn
Comments: 6
Kudos: 26





	1. Chapter One - The First Orders security is alarmingly lacking

“This armour has got to be the most inconvenient thing I’ve ever worn, it protects _nothing_.”

“You’ve got no right to complain buckethead, remember back when all you wore were those fancy bathrobes?” Sanji mutters as he puts on the stormtrooper helmet.

“They were jedi robes, and Nami made me wear it on a dare, it doesn’t count,” Zoro retorts quietly as he puts on his own helmet.

“It totally does.” His voice comes out tinny through the filter on the helmet. All the better, the less chances that someone recognizes them the better. Force help them, this is going to be a disaster.

“So the plan? We have one right?”

“We find Franky and Robin, and immediately haul ass out of here. Nami has the Sunny cloaked and waiting for us in hangar two.”

The plan is simple in essence, but Sanji knows based on experience that it’s definitely gonna get horribly derailed somewhere along the line. Most likely on the “haul ass” part.

*

After getting their armour on properly, they exit the supply closet, looking over their shoulders as they go. They leave the two actual stormtroopers unconscious on the floor, without their armour and blasters.

They march through the corridors until they get to what Sanji is 97% sure is the unit where they keep the cells. He’s right, and they start looking for doors with posted guards. After some bickering and adrenaline-fueled minutes of searching, they’ve successfully found Robin restrained to an interrogation chair.

Zoro presses the button to release her as soon as she’s pointed him to where it is, and she stands up with more grace than any recently tortured individual should possess. Her clawed feet make soft “click clack” sounds against the floor as she walks. The blood on her face doesn’t seem to bother her at all, and her cuts seem to already be slowly disappearing on their own.

“Do you have any idea where Franky is?” Sanji asks as he removes his helmet. He can’t see shit out of the small and slim visors. How actual stormtroopers deal with it on the daily without revolting is a mystery.

“He should be nearby, they were going to use him for parts and technology.”

They both swear. Who knows how far they’ve gotten with that plan, it’s been almost three hours since Robin and Franky got captured already.

Sanji rubs his temples with one hand, his helmet under his arm. He can feel a headache coming on. “Splitting up now would be stupid, we need to be able to leave as soon as we’re done. Robin, where do you say we start?”

She thinks before saying, “He was making a lot of noise, so I heard what direction they went in. So I say we go left.”

*

They step out of the cell and Sanji grabs hold of Zoro’s hand just as he’s about to immediately go wandering off to the right.

“Let go of my hand you fucking idiot, I can walk on my own!”

The only thing stopping him from getting attacked is probably the fact that all of Zoro’s swords are back on the ship. If he wasn’t wearing a helmet, he’d put his face in his hands.

“Quiet down you moron, or you’re gonna get us all captured,” he growls as he lets go of Zoro’s hand and they grab hold of Robin's arms to keep up the stormtrooper disguise.

*

Finding Franky proves to be almost ridiculously easy for two people who should by all accounts not have gotten this far. He’s making one hell of a ruckus, and the door to the cell is open for some reason.

Just as they “happen to be walking by,” the guy who was presumably failing to scrap their engineer for parts storms out of the room in a frenzy.

Luckily for both them and Franky, it wasn’t Ren, or the ginger guy that always has a face that makes him look like he’s horribly constipated.

He walks off muttering angrily to himself, and their little rescue-party takes the opportunity to not-so-stealthily sneak into the cell he just left stupidly unsupervised.

*

“Hey guys! About time you showed up.” Franky holds up as much of his hand as the restraints let him in a greeting, which isn’t much more than just his hand really, thanks to his shackled wrists. This time it’s Robin who presses the button to remove the restraints. This interrogation chair is much larger than the standard one they found Robin in, because Franky fits in it, wide red shoulders and all.

The cyborg stretches as he stands, and had he been fully human, his back would have cracked like uncooked noodles. But he’s not, so Chopper’s not going to have an aneurysm about Franky wrecking his joints anytime soon.

He kisses Robin on the cheek with a smile and a soft, “Hey honey,” as they make it for the door.

The First Orders alarmingly lacking security finally kicks in when they leave the interrogation room, in the form of stormtroopers mobilizing quickly on all three sides.

“Finally! I was wondering where they were!” Zoro sounds way too excited for the situation.

Both Zoro and Sanji stole the blasters from the two stormtroopers that they “borrowed” their armour from. Robin does her thing, her four arms a blur as she breaks backs and bones left and right, and Franky’s got himself covered with all his built-in weaponry. On second thought, that’s probably the biggest reason he was captured at all.

Suddenly a stormtrooper that’s about to shoot Zoro in the back falls to the ground, a smoking hole in his chestplate. The reason for that comes in the form of Usopp, blaster at the ready and a confused look on his face.

“What the hell’s taking you so long? Wasn’t this supposed to be a stealth mission?”

“Usopp, Chopper! Good to see you!” Sanji greets them with a smile as he kicks an unfortunate trooper in the back of the knee. At the same time, Franky shouts, “Yeah we got a little, uh, sidetracked as you can see. Sorry.”

Usopp sighs and shoots four stormtroopers with his blaster in quick succession as Chopper holds onto his shoulder for dear life, his fur so dark with stress that he almost blends in with Usopp’s hair.

They manage to break through the wall of stormtroopers, and start sprinting back the way they came, towards the TIE-fighter bays, where the Sunny and the rest of the crew are waiting, hidden in plain sight by Franky’s clever cloaking mechanism.

It’s becoming clearer and clearer that Franky was most likely just kidnapped so the First Order could get a hold of his technology and blueprints. A foolish plan, made by even more foolish people.

The remaining guards are hot on their tail, but are kept at bay by Usopp and Franky frantically shooting back at them.

*

As they all sprint over to where Sunny is standing next to the TIE-fighter bays, now uncloaked, they hear a loud “clunk” from somewhere on the ship. As do all the stormtroopers, and many of them stop to listen for orders, or just out of chock. Their group takes the chance to book it towards their ship and up the Sunny’s entrance ramp. The ramp slides back into place with a satisfying hiss, and they’re off.

*

As they all stumble through the door and into one of Sunny's many corridors, the first thing they’re greeted by is Brook’s absurdly tall and wiry frame. His cheerful and tinny voice is familiar and comforting.

“I see you’re all back in one piece! What a relief!!”

“I still want to check all of you over, I don’t want anyone going on with their day with a sprained wrist or something,” Chopper states as he nimbly jumps from Usopp’s shoulder over to Zoro’s.

Zoro pulls a face. “It was one time! Are you ever gonna stop bringing it up?”

“You didn’t tell anyone for almost two days and that almost counts for twice in my book, and no, I will not.” The kushiban yelps and presses his claws into Zoro’s shoulder almost hard enough to break skin when the ship suddenly bursts into motion, making everything shake.

“What the hell are you doing Nami!?”

“Sorry!” She pipes up from the cockpit. She doesn’t sound even remotely apologetic.

As they take off, Usopp runs off towards the gunner hatch to help Nami make sure that they aren’t blasted out of the sky, while Zoro and the rest from the rescue make their way towards the infirmary.

*

“Why aren’t they shooting at us?!”

Usopp swings his chair around to take a look at their far left, and sees a TIE-fighter fleeing fire for all that it’s worth.

“We’ve got company, another break-out!”

“Good for them, that sucked,” Franky says as he slips into the passenger seat behind Nami.

“Get out of my cockpit or make yourself useful and take the second gunner's seat, Franky,” Nami answers as she makes a hard right turn to avoid a hit.

“Alright, alright, I’m leaving,” He says, kissing the top of her head before leaving to climb down the hatch to take the empty seat next to Usopp. His mohawk brushes the doorframe on the way out.

“Sanji said he talked nonstop for at least an hour to stop them from picking him apart,” Luffy pipes up from the doorway with a wide smile.

“That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Nami states, pulling out the comm to the interior speakers, “It’s a-ok with everyone if we give the runaway TIE a little help, right?”

The chorus of “yeah” and Franky’s “go for it kid” is all she needs to turn in a wide arch to the left, towards the fleeing TIE-fighter. It has multiple other TIE’s on its tail, and most likely even more preparing to leave the Finalizer’s hangars.

Franky makes quick work of the open hangars, while Usopp uses TIE’s for target practice. Their hoots and hollers are heard up to the cockpit and the loud noise almost makes Nami tug her headset off to not lose her hearing.

Suddenly, a group of blue bolts streak by their windows. Usopp manages to take out two of the moving targets, and the TIE-fighter takes care of one. It looks like it’s headed towards Jakku, why they would do that is anyone’s guess.

All their attention is then suddenly taken by the remaining TIE’s that have managed to finally get their act together and go after them, and Nami twists and turns to avoid fire and get away from the Finalizer and into open space.

After a good few minutes of leading their pursuers on a wild goose chase, the last remaining TIE-fighter on their tail turns into a blaze of sparks as it’s hit by their cannon, and the sounds of Usopp and Franky whooping and high-fiving make their way up through the hatch.

Luffy runs to meet them as they climb up the hatch, as Nami takes off her headset and sets the Sunny to auto pilot. Robin is sitting at the table in the main room, now freed from the infirmary and Chopper’s sharp claws and fussy worrying. Brook sits beside them, fidgeting like he wants to bring out his fiddle and play a tune.

Someone, most likely Zoro, brings drinks from the galley, and Brook starts up a jaunty song on the couch. Nami challenges Franky and Sanji to a game of sabbac with Robin as the dealer, and the two men foolishly accept. When the night is over they’re both going to have considerably lighter pockets if Nami has something to say about it.

Chopper hops down from his buir’s shoulder and climbs over to watch the game, and Sanji scritches him behind an ear.

They go on with their day, unaware of the TIE-fighter they helped hurtling towards Jakku’s surface with a burning wing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first chapter of a tea fueled crossover au, written and built up with the help of slydiddledeedee and ruskaina on tumblr! I have no idea how long it's gonna end up being, all I know is that I've got the plans for a second chapter and that my neck hurts. I am also aware of the fact that the canon First Order wouldn't be caught dead with security this bad, but I wrote most of this at roughly 3am and thus didn't think of that, so shh.


	2. Chapter Two - Finn has a few really weird days

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot happens, people are gay.

FN-2187 wakes with a sharp gasp of breath.

The first thing to process in his mind, is that he’s so hot he feels like he’s about to be boiled alive in his armour. The second thing is that he has a proper name now. Finn. He likes it. He likes it a lot, even.

Finn gets out from under the cover of the parachute and arduously stands up in the scorching sand of what he thinks is most likely Jakku, and looks around. The wreckage of the TIE-fighter must be around here somewhere, the emergency parachute can’t have sent him really far away when there’s practically no wind.

He picks a direction, and starts walking.

As he reaches the top of a dune, he sees the TIE, lying halfway buried in the sand. Mustering up the energy, he makes his way down the slope and stumbles over to the still smoking wreck and looks for a way in. 

“C’mon Poe, don’t be dead. I’m gonna get you out of there,” He needs to find Poe, needs to find out if the pilot is dead or not. But all he finds is Poe’s leather jacket and two empty seats.

That is all he has time to do before the ship starts to violently shake, and he hurries to scramble out in case it explodes.

Luckily it doesn’t do that, instead it starts to rapidly sink into the sand.

“Poe- _No_!”

Finn backs away from the sinking wreck, his arms and with them Poe’s jacket quickly going up in front of his face to shield it from the sand that goes flying in every direction. The TIE is completely gone in seconds, and Finn is lucky that he continues to back away, because right after that, it explodes underground, causing a geyser of sand and shrapnel to shoot high up into the air.

What if Poe was still in there? Maybe he missed something, he didn’t have a lot of time to search the cockpit before everything started shaking and he had to get out, and- Finn stops himself from going any further down that train of thought. He’ll end up contemplating Poe’s maybe-death for forever otherwise. He needs to find shelter, and more importantly, water. His throat feels like it’s made of sandpaper already.

He needs to get out of the sun. Or at least find water.

So he walks, leaving a trail of his armour behind him, holding Poe’s jacket over his head for a modicum of shade.

Unsurprisingly, the jacket doesn’t do him much good, because he’s still parched and burning up when he first sees the small station, still miles away. Reaching the top of that dune and finally seeing a sign of life on this cursed planet is the only good thing to happen to him today.

Stumbling into the small settlement like a dead man walking, Finn barely veers out of the way for sourfaced scavengers and merchants and goes straight for the nearest water source, a small pool of filthy water where a hulking happabore is drinking.

Completely dismissing all thought of it being a glaring health hazard, he drinks. After a few mouthfuls it registers that it’s disgusting and tastes like gravel, so he spits it out, spluttering and falling back on his knees. But he still feels like someone’s poured sand down his throat, so against his own better judgement, he goes back for more water.

Out of nowhere, the happabore pushes him over. As he’s getting back on his feet, he sees a woman fighting off two thugs with a long staff. Beside her, is a droid. It matches Poe’s colour description, orange and white. Finn doesn’t know what a BB unit looks like, but he’d bet credits that that is the droid Poe went back for. A droid he will probably never see again because he is most likely dead.

He winces as he sees the woman bite one of her attackers, and then spin around to kick the other one in the head as he tries to pull a sack over the droid. That looks like it hurts a whole lot.

The last attacker hits the sound with a dull thud. Finn is still watching her, stunned. That proves to be a mistake as the droid looks around, seemingly ignoring the woman who’s now kneeled down to talk to it, and sees him. It gives out a loud beeping sound and the woman whips her head to look straight at him.

She looks back at the droid, and says something he can't hear, pointing in his direction. He has a bad feeling about this.

His gut feeling proves him right when the woman starts sprinting towards him, quarterstaff in hand and an angry look on her face. He jumps to his feet and goes charging in the other direction, dodging stalls and people in an effort to lose her. She catches up to him almost immediately, and quickly hits him in the back of the knees with her staff, making him go careening down into the sand.

“What’s the hurry, thief?” She spits, waving the staff threateningly in his face. He scrambles backwards to avoid losing an eye.

“Thief? I’m not a thie- OW!”

The droid has folded out an arm and tased him, the little menace. The woman doesn’t look convinced. “The jacket. This droid says you stole it, thief!”

“Wha- no!” He turns to the droid, “Your master was Poe Dameron, right? That was his name? I helped him escape the First Order! I didn’t steal the jacket!”

The droid beeps in response and waves the arm dangerously close, as if to say that if his answer isn’t satisfactory, it’s gonna tase him again. Finn doesn’t know binary that well, so he looks at the woman, who is still glaring down at him.

“Where is he then? Poe?”

Oh. Oh no. This isn’t gonna be fun.

“When we escaped, our ship crashed. Poe-” He sighed, eyes directed at the ground, “-Poe didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”

The little droid immediately loses all it’s fighting spirit, and rolls off to the side, its photoreceptor depressingly aimed at the ground.

Finn sits up properly in the sand. The woman looks down at him, a contemplating look on her freckled and sun-tanned face.

“So you’re with the resistance?”

What the hell. He lies, an easy but stupid desicion.

“Yes. Yes uh- yeah I’m with the resistance,” He says as he stands up on shaky legs. All that walking in the sun was exhausting as hell, and he feels like he’s seconds away from toppling over and passing out.

She studies him, and if he didn’t know better he’d say she looked impressed. “I’ve never met a real resistance fighter before.”

“Well. This is what we look like. Well no, others look different, this is just me,” Finn gestures awkwardly at himself.

“BB-8 says he’s on a mission, a secret one. He has to get back to your base somehow.”

_Shit_.

“He’s supposedly got a map that leads straight to Luke Skywalker on him, and everyone’s after it apparently,” Finn says, crossing his arms in a weak attempt to act like a totally-not-former-stormtrooper. The droid, BB-8, is looking at them back and forth like it’s watching a tennis match.

“Luke Skywalker? He’s real? I thought he was just a legend,” She says, tone half disbelieving, half baffled.

BB-8 interrupts their low conversation with loud and frantic beeping.

The woman leans down to peek around the corner of a stall, and promptly stands back up straight, looking like she’s about to bolt.

“What’s going on? What’d you see?” The nagging feeling is back in the back of his brain again. Something is about to go wrong.

“Stormtroopers, talking to Unkar’s lackeys. They’ve got to be looking for BB-8-”

The rest of what she says goes unheard by Finn. He sees her mouth moving, but his world stops at the word stormtrooper. They can’t have found him this quickly, it’s got to be the droid they’re after. Even though the chance of them knowing he’s here, on this part of the planet, is distressingly big.

He does the first thing that comes to mind, and grabs her hand and books it in the opposite direction of the stormtroopers, towards the center of the outpost. People, animals, and goods from stalls go flying as they race past, BB-8 on their tail.

“What are you- let go of my hand! I can run on my own!”

She’s interrupted before she can say anything else by blasterfire flying at their heads from behind them. She screams, and Finn runs faster.

“Let go of my fucking hand!”

“No, we’ve gotta go! Come on BB-8!”

They burst through on the other side of the outpost, and into a small spaceport.'

The woman leads the way towards a four-engine ship as TIE-fighter’s are blasting everything around them to hell and back. The ground shakes and there are people and debris everywhere.

“We need to get out of here!”

“We will in that, hopefully!” She gestures at the ship they’re running towards.

Finn then remembers that he has never flown a ship in his life. Hopefully she has.

“We need a pilot!”

“We already have one!” She stretches her arms out.

 _“You?!”_ Unexpected, but not at all unwelcome. Then he sees a much closer option out of the corner of his eye. He points at the ship, yelling, “What about that one, it’s closer?!”

She yells something about garbage, and is about to continue but the rest of her answer is completely drowned out by the deafening noise of the quadjumper they were going to escape in exploding in a ball of fire and shrapnel.

They skid to a stop in the sand. “The garbage will have to do!” The woman declares, and they turn around and sprint towards the old ship.

*

The following chase through the ship graveyard is something that will give Finn both nightmares and courage for months.

The woman is a good pilot, and she veers nimbly between wrecks and dunes in an effort to lose their pursuers. She’s mad enough to cut the engines to give him a chance to shoot at the last remaining TIE, and by some miracle, it works.

*

As the last TIE smashes into an old ship and turns to a sparking heap of scrap metal, their ship climbs higher and higher into the sky. In minutes, they’re through the atmosphere.

Finn hears the woman and BB-8 rushing down the corridor as he’s climbing out of the turret, more hopped up on adrenaline than he’s ever been.

The woman is standing in front of him when he gets back up, an excited smile on her face. BB-8 is beeping wildly behind her legs. She promptly sticks out her hand.

“I’m Rey.”

Finn shakes her hand, stunned. He probably looks just as exhilarated as she does. “F- I’m Finn. Good to meet you, Rey.”

She smiles impossibly wider, her brown eyes glowing.

They stand there in the corridor, breathing heavily and high on adrenaline from their hectic escape as the ship leaves Jakku’s orbit, set for the stars.

*

The handheld communicator lights up with a beeping sound, and projects a small and blue hologram of Vivi’s face and shoulders. Her hair is in a mass of long braids pulled up into a knot at the top of her head, and she’s wearing something with a high and intricately embroidered collar, covering the thin chain with the engagement ring Nami gave her the last time they met.

 _“How are you holding up dear? Are things alright with the crew?”_ A warm buzz fills Nami at hearing the casual endearment. They may be engaged but it never gets old.

Vivi looks like she already knows what’s happened, even though it’s impossible for the news stations to have already found out about their latest ruckus. She’s known them long enough to safely assume that their crew is always onto some stupid shit.

Nami sighs, and runs a hand through her hair. It reaches down to her neck now, she’ll have to ask Usopp or Robin to cut it soon. She puts the communicator down on the control panel and leans back in her chair.

“Robin and Franky got captured by the First Order,” she starts, and before her fianceé has time to panic, she follows up with, “They’re both doing fine, we got them out three hours later, no harm done.” A true miracle, with their track record.

Vivi breathes a sigh of relief. She knows them well enough to know that “no harm done” actually means “a lot of harm done, but not to us”.

 _“I’m glad to hear it. But you still haven’t answered my first question.”_ She makes a face that is half smile, half worried. It’s been almost three weeks since they were able to have a proper chat. And before that they’d been chased by one of the Republic Navy ships for almost a month and she hadn’t been able to call. That had been in the news, if briefly.

“Everything’s holding up pretty alright, I’d say. Usopp finally fixed my communicator. I dropped it a few stops back, and we never had the time to properly look it over. I’m sorry I made you worry, Vivi.” That had been about a week ago, during a spectacularly wild chase through a smuggler market. She’d been lucky that Chopper had picked it up, or else she’d have had to get a new one.

She sinks into the well-worn pilot’s seat with a sigh, “I’m sorry I haven’t been able to comm as much lately. There’s…” She thinks about their last run-in with a First Order supporting crew, “A lot going on over here. That's no excuse for not comming you, though.”

Vivi’s hologram makes a sympathizing face. She might not be physically there, but she still hears of most of their goings-ons and escapades.

_“Did anything else happen? Knowing you it definitely did.”_

Nami thinks about where to start. “Someone else escaped at the same time, in a TIE-fighter. I’m really jealous, those things look like they’re fun to pilot.”

_“Really? Do you know who it was?”_

Nami scratches her nose. “Absolutely no idea. But if I was to bet on it, I’d say it was a resistance fighter. The pilot knew what they were doing. We lost sight of them after the Order got their act together and sent someone after us too, so we don’t know where they may be now though.”

They talk about happier things for a good long while.Vivi complains for a while about some new difficult business partner. As they’re saying goodbye, Nami calls Vivi her sweetheart and she makes a sound like a startled loth-cat. She blows Vivi’s blushing face a kiss and laughs as she ends the call and stuffs the communicator back into one of her many pockets. Her own cheeks are warm as well, and her heart is doing flips.

Settling back into her chair, Nami looks out at the endless stars. She absentmindedly fiddles with her mother’s wedding ring, hanging on a necklace. She can’t wait to give it to Vivi.

*

Takodana is simultaneously a huge mess and really simple. On paper, it’s easy, but in reality, it’s one of the most confusing things Finn’s ever been through. Just the reality of meeting Han Solo hasn’t properly processed yet.

As Finn is about to board the ship supposed to get him to the Outer Rim, the sound of people screaming makes him turn around. They’re pointing at the sky, and what he sees makes his blood turn to ice.

Finn has never seen the Starkiller in use before. But this could be nothing else, he thinks as the red beams in the sky burn their targets to ash. Five planets and billions of lives, immediately blown to bits.

People from inside the cantina who have come outside to see what all the screaming is about all start to rush to their ships to get away.

Finn looks around, and sees Han and Chewie stepping out of the entrance to the castle, looking up at the sky with wide eyes.

“The Republic- their capital, it’s gone. The First Order has done it,” Finn does his best to sound like he isn’t scared out of his mind, but the looks Han and Chewie both give him tells him that he’s doing a terrible job.

“Have any of you seen Rey? Where is she?”

Han’s answer is interrupted by a whirring sound overhead. The sight of the First Order fleet closing in on the castle makes Finn’s heart sink through the ground at light speed.

He is ripped out of his panic by someone tugging on the sleeve of his jacket. He turns, and looks down to see Maz peering up at him though her lenses.

“Come with me. I have something for you,” She rasps before turning around and walking back inside.

She leads them down under the ground, into a dusty corridor with doors on both sides that all look like they haven’t been opened for decades. She’s surprisingly fast for her tiny size.

Maz goes into a room at the end of the corridor, the only room with an open door.

“This has been collecting dust in here for ages…” she says, opening a wooden box that looks positively ancient. What she’s holding in her hand when she turns around almost makes Finn bolt back up the stairs to see if the smugglers he was supposed to tag along with still are here.

It’s a lightsaber.

“Where did you get that?” Han murmurs behind him. Finn startles, not having heard him. Han's face is a mixture of intense grief and confusion.

“That’s a good question, but for another time,” Maz says as she turns to look up at Finn. She thrusts the weapon at him, “Take it, Finn. Go find your friend.”

He accepts it with shaky hands.

Then the building is shaken by a loud blow from above ground. Maz yells, and they run back up to see stormtroopers and TIE’s shooting at everything in sight. There’s rubble, dead, and panicked people everywhere, but no Rey.

Seeing the resistance pilots make quick work of the swarming TIE-fighters and stormtroopers is awe-inspiring. But the feeling is short-lived as the stormtroopers all begin to pull back and Finn spots Rey, unconscious, in the arms of Kylo Ren.

“REY!”

He uselessly runs after the shuttle as it takes off, and only stops and slumps down on the ground when it’s out of sight.

*

Almost three months later, after they've blown up the Star Destroyer, Finn and Poe are sitting at the desk in their room (when Finn joined, Poe had been one of the few people with an extra bunk free), both going through the last parts of their reports of a mission.

“Hey Finn?”

“Yeah?”

“You remember when we escaped the Finalizer and all that? Did you notice the other ship?”

Finn looks up from his datapad and the report he’s almost done writing. “There was another ship there? With the Finalizer?”

Poe puts down his own paperwork and puts his chin in his hand. “Yeah. I wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn’t been shooting down TIE’s for us, they were pretty far away. I did see a mark on their hull though.”

The sunlight of the D’Qar sunset turns Poe’s warm skin bright orange and makes his dark eyes so light that they look almost yellow. Finn shakes himself out of his daze.

“You remember what it looked like? Can you draw it?”

“Yeah! Yeah, hold on a second-”

As it turns out, none of them know which crew the mark belongs to. They ponder and think about who it could be, guessing names of the pirate crews they know of. In the end it’s Poe who rises from his chair and says, “Y’know what, I think we need help. I think Jess has a holobook on pirates, we can ask her.”

Jess shares a room in the women's barracks with Rose Tico, a mechanic. Both women are sitting at the room’s only desk, each woman occupied with her own work as Finn and Poe appear at the door.

“Hey Jess?” Poe sing-songs as he knocks on the doorframe.

She makes a _hmm_ noise to show she’s listening without looking up from what she’s writing. It’s most likely a report, she just came back from chaperoning a supply run.

“Do you still have that holobook of wanted posters and pirate logos and stuff? We need it for science.”

Jess points at the shelf on the wall above her bed, says, “You can take it if you can reach it, just give it back when you’re done. They’re called jolly rogers,” and then goes right back to her report.

Rose briefly looks up from the droid she’s fiddling with. “Who are you looking for?”

Finn holds up the sketch Poe made of the jolly roger. She peers at it for a second, then shakes her head and says, “I’ve definitely seen that in the news before. Marks with hats aren’t that common, but I can’t remember their name. Sorry.”

Finn says “It’s fine,” at the same time as Poe says, “I got it! Thanks Jess!”

They tell the girls goodbye and walk back to their room.

With how extensive the list of pirate crews there are around is, it takes a while to find the one they’re looking for. It’s quite far down in the “S” file. But when they do find it, Poe slaps a hand over his face and groans. “How could I not recognize that mark. _How?”_

“What are you talking about, I’ve never heard of them. Are they well-known?”

Poe looks at Finn like he wants to ask him if he’s lived under a rock his entire life. “ _Yes!_ Yes, they’re well-known! The Strawhats are some of the most well-known nuisances in the galaxy! The First Order hates their guts because they’re always freeing their territories, and the Republic doesn’t like them either on principle because they’re pirates!”

At that, Finn remembers one of the few lectures from his childhood that weren’t about how despicable the Resistance was, but instead about how no-good pirates free territories, steal cargo, free workers and botch missions.

He thinks back to their escape. He hadn’t been on guard duty that week, so he wouldn’t have known if they had anyone more than Poe in custody. But with how the Strawhat crew were apparently hanging around, they most likely had.

A morally grey pirate crew that makes a habit of fucking with the First Order. They sound both interesting and terrifying.

“We should try to get a hold of them.”

Poe almost drops his datapad. _“What.”_

“Think about it Poe!-” Finn leans forward in his chair and crosses his arms on the table “-You said they’re openly opposing the First Order, right? Always messing up their missions, destroying their bases and whatnot- why not try to get them on the emergency contact list or something? We’re constantly in need of more people, so why not?”

“On the emergency co- I’m not saying you’re wrong, you’re absolutely right but they’re,” He pauses to think, “Destructive.”

“Poe we blew up a planet. I don’t think we have any room to complain.”

“...You’ve got a point. The General’s in a meeting right now but when she’s done we can ask her about it.”

Finn nods with a smile, and turns back to his abandoned report.

*

Convincing General Organa and the other commanders to let them go after a pirate crew of madmen takes both their combined efforts in polite arguing and a whole hour of going back and forth.

They’re back in their room packing and planning, when they hear a knock on the doorframe.

“What’s this I hear about going looking for pirates?”

“Rose? How do you know about that?” Finn asks, putting down his datapad.

“I got a message from the General about it,” She enters the room properly and makes a beeline for the only unoccupied chair, “And I got asked to come along with you. Do you have a plan on where to start looking?”

Poe swivels around in the other chair, “Uh, yeah hold on a second-” He taps on his datapad, and a holomap lights up the room. “We were gonna start out by going to Maz to see if she has any leads, since the Strawhats haven’t been in the news all that much lately. If she doesn’t know, we’ll check out the place they were last spotted in.”

“And where was that?”

“The Bespin system. But that was about a month ago, so they’ve most likely moved on to somewhere else,” Poe says from his perch on his chair.

Rose nods. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s good enough to start with. “When are we leaving?”

“We’re hoping to go in two days, that’s when the next scout ship comes back. It’ll be easier than all of us going in separate fighters,” Finn answers, putting one last shirt in his bag and closing it.

*

Finn ends up being right. Packing and seeing that the ship is in good condition takes about one full day of running back and forth.

They leave in the late evening, the sun a thin slice over the horizon. Just like it did two days prior, it bathes Poe’s face in warm light, and Finn watches from his seat with a soft smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly to move things along, but it's also for the gays in the audience. Who doesn't love to look at their crush in good lighting?


End file.
